There is much interest within the medical community for materials and methods for use in reconstructive surgery of tissue. An emerging approach is tissue engineering, in which new tissue is grown from tissue-comprising biomaterials and engineered into desired shapes and structures. The types of tissues that can be grown and engineered include, for example, bone, and cartilage. One of the primary uses for replacement cartilage is to correct defects in the articular surface of various joints. For example, a damaged cartilage meniscus in a patient's knee can be replaced with an artificially engineered meniscus.
Likewise, new biomaterials for soft tissue augmentation are in demand given the limitations of current materials and the surge in elective and non-elective surgical procedures to correct contour defects and for tissue replacement. Autogenous fillers such as fat tissue are beneficial but not ideal in that they are associated with donor site morbidity, resorption, migration and supply limitations. Numerous natural and synthetic biomaterials have emerged with different compositions and preparations to meet the growing demands of physicians and patients. The duration of the effect (temporary, semi-permanent and permanent) is often used to categorize these commercialized products. In the United States, permanent fillers are composed of a variety of biomaterials such as poly(methylmethacrylate), polymeric silicone, poly(tetrafluoroethylene) and polyethylene. These implantable materials can lead to adverse clinical outcomes including recurrent hematomas, edema, hypertrophic scarring, nodule formation and resorption. As such, there is a tremendous need for safe and effective biomaterials for dermal implant and filler applications that minimize deleterious tissue responses.